What is Pre-filled form in Income Tax and how to use it for Income tax Filing?

Pre-filled forms are the kind of blessing for all the taxpayers who want to file their returns themselves. From Assessment year 2019-20, Income tax Department had introduced the system of choosing the bank account for claiming the refund. So if you want to file your return via offline utility or online utility, you need your pre-filled form beforehand.

Contents of Pre-filled Forms

Pre-filled forms generally contain your entire details as you had mentioned in the last year return. Along with it, it also contains your current year TDS/TCS details and advance tax challan details. It also contains your Bank details as described in last year return.

How to download Pre-filled Forms?

For downloading your Pre-filled forms, you should follow the following steps:

Step 1: Go to Income Tax Website and click on ‘Login Here’ as shown in the given picture below.

Step 2: As shown in the picture below, Login with your Username, i.e. your PAN Number and Password. Enter the Captcha and click on Login to open your Account.

Step 3: Now go to ‘My Account’ as shown in the picture below.

Step 4: The scroll down box will open. Now go to ‘Download Pre-filled XML’ option as given in the picture.

Step 5: In ‘Download Pre-filled XML’, you will see your Bank Account details as you had mentioned in your last year return. In front of each bank detail, there is the tick box. You have to select one bank account by ticking the box in which you want your refund(if any) to be credited.

Step 6: Click ‘Download XML’. The Text File will be downloaded which can be opened in Offline or Online Utility.

Benefits of Pre-filled Forms

It reduces the time and labour in preparing the return. You just need to download and open it in offline utility. Your all details will be updated in the software.

It contains your TDS/TCS and advance tax details. So you cannot make any mistake in these details by simply using these pre-filled forms.

I had recently used this option while filing the return and i must say that it is easy to use and fast method to prepare the return and file it! So i would recommend you to use it in your returns.